Google, SEO and using CSS to hide text

Many standards aware developers use CSS to hide text for accessibility or usability reasons such as hidden skip links and form labels, image replacement, or displaying help text only when requested by the user.

Those are all legitimate reasons to hide text, but many developers have still been worried that Google and other search engines may start to algorithmically flag any sites that use CSS to hide text as possible spammers.

Up until now, that has not been the case (at least not officially), but in the post SEO Mistakes: Unwise comments, Matt Cutts, who works at Google, states that I don’t recommend that people use CSS to hide text. That statement of course generated a whole lot of comments and questions from worried developers and webmasters.

Imagine if legitimate use of CSS to hide text would risk getting a site penalised, or even banned from Google and other search engines. That would be a disaster for many sites built with modern web development methods.

Fortunately that does not seem to be the case. Matt responds in a comment to the post Google Engineer Hammered over CSS Spam Comments at Threadwatch.org:

"If you’re straight-out using CSS to hide text, don’t be surprised if that is called spam. I’m not saying that mouseovers or DHTML text or have-a-logo-but-also-have-text is spam; I answered that last one at a conference when I said “imagine how it would look to a visitor, a competitor, or someone checking out a spam report. If you show your company’s name and it’s Expo Markers instead of an Expo Markers logo, you should be fine. If the text you decide to show is ‘Expo Markers cheap online discount buy online Expo Markers sale …’ then I would be more cautious, because that can look bad.”

That is pretty reassuring, but I can’t help worrying about Google (and other search engines) implementing algorithms to programatically find text that has been hidden by using CSS. In another comment on the same post at Threadwatch.org, Matt Cutts says that:

"We can flag text that appears to be hidden using CSS at Google. To date we have not algorithmically removed sites for doing that."

While it’s good to know that sites are not currently being removed without a manual review, that could change in the future. So I would advise anyone making extensive use of CSS techniques that hide text to make sure that it can’t be mistaken for spamming.

Thanks & Regards,
Sonika Soni
Garments Exports
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About the Author - Sonika is a SEO and an emerging author in the field of technology. She is associated with Elixir Web Solutions "http://www.elixirwebsolutions.com", which is a software development, dynamic website design and development, e-commerce application development, ethical search engine optimization company in New Delhi, India

The Truth About Google’s Adsense Affiliate Program

The truth about Google’s Adsense program is that it is amazing. It’s the greatest affiliate program ever invented. There is no affiliate program that even comes close. If you are not using Google’s Adsense, you’re truly missing out on a great opportunity. I’ve tried several other affiliate programs, and the only one that is
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Amazon.com’s affiliate program pays 5% commission and up for shipped products. It’s not really clear how Google pays you, but let me tell you it seems very fair. They do not pay per clicks, leads, or click throughs; they have a secret formula that no one will tell. But trust me it works. I was making pennies off of clicks monthly, until I joined Google. Then the pennies became dollars.

Here are some basic tips for signing up with Google’s Adsense program.

Tip # 1 If you search multiple websites in different categories you’ll find one thing in common. Almost all of them have Google ads and nothing else. This is because most other programs are a waste of time. Don’t take my word for it. Try other programs, but don’t skip Google’s Adsense.

Tip # 2 Google’s search spiders are so specific, that the ads that appear on each page correspond exactly to some element of that page. Therefore, having ads from other companies is not a good idea.

TIP # 3 You can place text, image, banner ads and even a search box that will earn your company revenue. Do not place a search box from another company on the same page as Google’s search box. They may stop working with you.

In summary, the Adsense program is a great way to make revenue, has incredibly targeted ads and don’t use other search boxes on the same page as a Google search box. If you have any questions about Google’s Adsense program, you can email me at swaani.mish@gmail.com

Thanks & Regards,
Sonika
web Design company working SEO on Garments Buying House